The Clow Card Syndrome
by ChandaK562
Summary: Sakura, Madison and Kero are visiting New Yor City when the Clow Cards escape bringing them into contact with the Men in Black. Also, Madison is trying to find out about her father. **A MiB/CardCaptors Crossover** Based on the cartoon.
1. Default Chapter

**The Clow Card Syndrome**

A MiB/CardCaptors Crossover

Author's Note: I've only seen the American dubbed version of CardCaptors so I'm using some of the names of the main characters from that since they're what I'm a little more comfortable with. I hope no one minds.

"Madison, are you finished unpacking?" Sakura Avalon said as she stepped out of the bathroom of the the room she was sharing with her best friend at the Queen Victoria Hotel in New York City. She could hardly believe that they were there. It had only been a week ago that her father had recieved the news that he had been selected to give the opening lecture at a symposium in New York. Tory hadn't been able to take time off from his part-time job, unfortunately, or fortunately depending on how much he was annoying Sakura that day, so her dad had agreed to bring Madison along so Sakura would have someone to keep her company. Of course, Kero had snuck along in Sakura's luggage so she wouldn't have been really alone but she was very happy Madison was there. They were going to have a fantastic time.

Just then she noticed her friend staring out the window with a sad expression on her face. "Madison, what's wrong?" Sakura said as she went over to her. She had never seen Madison look so sad before, like her heart was broken.

"I'm sorry, Sakura," Madison said as she turned to face her, wiping a tear from her cheek as she did so. She carefully picked her words, not wanting to upset her best friend. She knew how much Sakura had been looking forward to this trip. She didn't need a wet blanket along for the ride. "I was just thinking about....my father." She blurted the words out quickly, their sound unfamiliar to her. She had said that word maybe five times in her ten years.

"Your father?" Sakura asked.

"He was American, from here," Madison whispered. "My mom doesn't like to talk about him. That's the only thing I really know about him except that he died before I was born. I don't even know what he looks like. My mom burned all of his pictures and everything."

"Madison, I never knew. You must really miss him," Sakura whispered. She had known of course that her friend's father was dead but she never knew that Madison knew so little about him. Although Sakura had lost her mother at a young age, at least her father and brother had kept her mom's memory alive.

"It doesn't really matter," Madison said with a hesitent smile. "Why don't you go on downstairs and meet your dad for dinner? I'm not really hungry. I think I'm going to go ahead and go to sleep."

"Well, okay. If you're sure." Sakura said as she headed for the door. "If you change your mind about eating, my dad said we could use room service, if Kero hasn't already got ahold of it, that is."

Madison moved back to the window as soon as her friend was gone and looked out on the city again. Had her father looked out over this place in the same way long ago? Madison wished she knew something, anything about him. She didn't even know if he had known her mom had been pregnant before he died. If he had known, did he want his daughter? A tear rolled down her cheek dripping onto the plum blossoms in a vase on the room's table.

"I miss you, Daddy," Madison whispered as she pushed the window open and sadly dropped the flower, watching it fall down, down, down until it came to rest beside a black car parked at the curb of the hotel. A man in a dark suit bent down and picked it up then looked up.

Madison quickly shut the window and went back to the bed. It had been so silly dropping the flower like that. She carefully opened her bag and took out a card. Mio, one of her bodyguards had pushed it into her hand in the moments before she had boarded the plane with Sakura and her father. The message was simple, 'If you want to know the truth about your father, look here.' Then a New York address was listed. Madison stared down at it for a moment before beginning to change into her pajamas. Just before she climbed into bed, she slipped the card into her pajama pocket over her heart. "Daddy," she whispered, her eyes slowly slipping shut as tears ran silently down her cheeks.


	2. Chapter 2

"So, what do you think you'll find out about your dad here?" Sakura asked as she and Madison walked down the street heading for the Battery Drive address Madison had been given the next day. It was so nice that they had only taken the cab halfway and decided to walk the rest of the way.

"I don't know. Maybe he has family here or something. I just hope they have a picture of him. I really want to know what he looked like," Madison said "Not to mention knowing his name."

"Wouldn't his last name be Taylor like yours?" Sakura asked.

"No. That was the name of my mom's first husband. I think my mom was pretty high up in her company by the time she got together with my dad so she just never bothered changing it for herself and then by the time I was born my dad was gone so there wasn't really a need."

"Could you be careful?!" Kero called from Sakura's backpack, deverting Madison before she could become too sad at the thought of her father again. "I'm getting squashed in here!"

"Here. You can wait for us out here," Sakura said as she stopped and opened the backpack. Kero quickly flew out and stretched to relieve the cramps from being bounced around over half of the town. "Just don't let anyone see you."

Just then a man, or what Sakura thought was a man at first, came racing down the street, ramming into the girl, sending her crashing to the pavement and her backpack flying out of her grasp.

"Sakura, are you alright?" Madison asked anxiously just as two men in black suits raced past them with weapons drawn.

"I'm fine. I think we better get out of the way, though," Sakura said as she pulled herself up and darted into a nearby alley with Madison and Kero right behind her. She cautiously peered around the corner and spotted her backpack laying on the pavement. In her rush, she had completely forgotten it.

Sakura was just about to rush out for it when the "man" suddenly fired some sort of energy blast at the men in black suits. She quickly ducked back to safety and stared at Madison and Kero in shock. "I don't think that's a human," she murmered.

"Is it a Clow Card?" Madison asked as she peeked out just long enough to see the man's scaly green face. Definately not normal.

"I would have sensed it for sure when he knocked me down," Sakura said. "At least I think I would have sensed it."

Just then, they heard another blast and Sakura suddenly felt a something cold running down her spine. She quickly looked out to find that her backpack had been struck and was glowing oddly. "The cards," she whispered as she darted out. She had to get to the pack before something horrible happened.

Sakura had just reached he pack when a bright light shot out of the pack and a tremendous wind rushed around her. She struggled against the wind, reaching into the bag and pulling out the Clow book. Somehow, it was open and the cards were flying out again right before her eyes. Sakura quickly slammed it shut but not before almost all of the Clow Cards had escaped.

"Sakura, what happened?" Madison said as she darted out and dragged her friend back to safety again. "Those weren't...."

"The Clow Cards escaped," Sakura moaned. She couldn't believe this had happened. She had brought the cards with her because she was worried about leaving them at the hotel and now.... How could she have been so stupid. "We have to get back to the hotel and figure out how many of them are missing," Sakura murmered.

Just then the girls heard footsteps approaching and ducked behind a trash can as a young black man in a black suit appeared at the entrance to the alley. "Now where did those girls go? Could have sworn I saw them come in here," Jay muttered just as he caught sight of Madison and Sakura. "There you are!" He started towards them pulling out the neuralizer his partner had loaned him. Suddenly a flash of orange fur swooped down on him and the next thing Jay knew, there was some sort of odd stuffed animal clamped onto his finger resisting all efforts to pry it off.

"Run!" Kero called.

Sakura grabbed Madison's hand and darted off down the alley, pulling out her key and chanting as she ran. "I hope Fly didn't get away," she murmered as her sealing wand appeared in her hands and she quickly tried to summon the power of The Fly card. A second later she was relieved to see the wings appearing on the back of the wand. She hopped on, pulling Madison on behind her as they took off. Sakura just hoped they could recover the missing Clow Cards as easily as they had escaped the man in black.


	3. Chapter 3

"Let me get this straight," Elle said as she stared at Jay curiously. "You were attacked by a STUFFED ANIMAL?"

"It was a teddy bear, a teddy bear with wings. Can I please have my band-aid now?" Jay muttered as he sucked on his injured finger. He was probably going to get rabies or something and Elle was just standing there silently laughing at him. Didn't they make them take some sort of oath in medical school not to do that?

"No sign of those two girls," Kay said as he came over followed by X.

"And what was it you said they escaped on again, Agent Jay? A broomstick?" X asked with a chuckle.

"No, it wasn't a broomstick," Jay grumbled. "It was a pink stick with wings!" He was going to be the laughing stock of MiB for months because of this. He didn't know why they could handle aliens just fine and an attack by a stuffed animal was utterly impossible to believe. He took the band-aid Elle held out and wrapped it around his finger before storming off. He was going to find those girls and that toy if it was the last thing he did!

Kay pulled out his communicator as it beeped. "Go ahead, Zed."

"Has the situation with Gotor been contained yet?" the head of MiB demanded.

"We have him in custody but we ran into a small problem. Two young girls saw the fight and got away from Jay before they could be neuralized."

"WHAT?!! There are civilians roaming around with knowledge of an alien presence on Earth!" This was a total disaster. Zed was suddenly picturing a month of nothing but aliens on every talk show in the country if this story got out. "How did two kids escape a trained MiB agent?"

"Jay claims that he was attacked by a teddy bear that kept him from going after the girls," Elle said as she peered around Kay at the communicator.

"A teddy bear?" Zed said as a puzzled expression appeared on his face. He couldn't have heard that right.

"A teddy bear with wings," X added. "I think it might be time for Agent Jay to pay a little visit to the MiB mental ward."

"You might want to have the twins run the description through the database. It could have been an alien,"Kay said.

"Fine. In the meantime, Kay, I want you and Jay to find these girls and neuralize them before they can tell anyone what they saw!"

"We're on it," Kay said as he started to shut of the connection.

"Oh, Elle, I have an assignment for you and X." Zed said before the connection was closed. "There's a disturbance at the Central Park Zoo. It seems that something invisible is down there juggling penguins. Get down there and check it out."

"Juggling penguins? What's a penguin?" X muttered as the two agents headed for their vehicle while Kay went off to find his partner.


	4. Chapter 4

"Well, how bad is it?" Madison asked as she sat on the bed beside Sakura watching her friends sort through the Clow Cards to see which ones were still there. Kero had just returned a few minutes before and was laying on the bedside table flipping through the room service menu.

"Well, we have Fly, Sleep, Windy, Sword and Shadow. Only five cards," Sakura moaned as she flopped back onto the bed. It had taken her forever to catch as many Clow Cards as she had and now all but five were loose again! How in the world was she going to get them back?

She sat up suddenly as she remembered where they had been going when the cards had escaped. "Madison, we still have to find out about your dad, too!"

"That's not important, Sakura. We need to worry about getting the Clow Cards back. I've gone without knowing about my dad for ten years. I probably shouldn't have even bothered looking now." Madison said as she tried to seem disinterested in her search. The Clow Cards were much more important.

"Madison, you're my friend! What if this is your only chance to find out about your father and you miss it because of me? This is important to you! We'll find a way to do both!" Sakura declared as she straightened up, her depression over loosing the cards slipping away and determination to catch them as quickly as possible filling her. She wasn't about to let her best friend miss what was possibly her only chance to learn about her dad because of her stupidity. Sakura couldn't begin to imagine how terrible she would feel if she was in Madison's position.

"Hey, Sakura, do you think your dad might have any mouthwash?" Kero said as he put down the phone. Sakura didn't even want to think of what he might have just ordered. "I can't get the taste of human out of my mouth and it's going to totally spoil my pudding."

"I'm going to check the tv," Madison said as she flicked it on. "Maybe there will be something to give us a clue to where the Clow Cards are here."

"Did that say what I thought it said?" Sakura asked Madison a moment later as they caught the end of a newsflash.

"Something's juggling penguins at the Central Park Zoo. Does that sound like..."

"The Power Card. Come on! We have to get down there before someone gets hurt!" Sakura said as she jumped up and headed for the door with Madison following after grabbing her video camera.


	5. Chapter 5

"X!!" Elle shouted at her partner. She couldn't believe this was happening. They had just entered the penguin enclosure when something had scooped her up and now she was dangling upside down roughly fifteen feet in the air. She pushed at the material surrounding her to try to clear her field of vision. Her skirt had flipped over her head when she had been grabbed and her blouse and jacket had come undone as well allowing her to see nothing but black and white. She was suddenly wishing that she had worn much more substantial undergarments that day.

Just then she heard X chuckling. "X, if you don't stop laughing and get me down from here this minute, I swear I am going to kill you!!!! This is not funny!!"

"Oh, I don't know," X called up to her. "It looks fairly amusing to me. Hideous, of course, but it's kind of like a train wreck. You can't help looking! Did you know you have the strangest looking mark on..."

"Shut up and get me down!!" Elle shrieked as she fumbled with her clothes to try to get covered up a little bit. When she got down, she was definitely going to have to kill X no matter what Zed thought. She could plead justifiable alienicide. No one would dare object to that.

Suddenly, Elle felt the thing holding her shifting it's grasp and the next thing she knew she was plummeting towards the ground. She had only a moment to think of how this would look when they scrapped her corpse up before she landed.

Elle let out a strangled moan when she realized she was still alive. She opened her eyes to see that she had landed on X, knocking him to the ground and breaking her fall. 'First helpful thing he's done for me since he got here,' Elle thought with a chuckle just as pink sparkling cloud appeared making her feel incredibly sleepy. A moment later, she was fast asleep on top of her partner.


	6. Chapter 6

"Did you see that?" Madison asked as she followed Sakura out of the bushes they had been hiding in as soon as the Sleep card had done its work. The two girls and Kero had arrived at the zoo just in time to see the Power card drop Elle.

"Someone's really going to get hurt," Sakura murmered. She would never forgive herself if someone was injured due to the cards. They were her responsibility. "Power Card, show yourself!"

A moment later, the little pink girl that was the Power Card's physical form appeared and charged at Sakura, who just managed to dodge out of the way in time.

"Shadow, envelop Power!" Sakura called as she released the Shadow Card. That strategy had worked with the Thunder Card.

Madison circled out around the fight trying to tape it from all angles without getting in the way. Shadow was fast but it was daylight, taking the advantage away from him. She wasn't sure if it would be strong enough to defeat Power.

The Power Card suddenly turned and dodged Shadow's latest attack, charging towards Madison. Madison jumped out of the way, swinging her video camera as she moved. A flash of sunlight bounced off of the lens and right into Power's eyes, blinding the card for a moment just as Shadow swooped in and enveloped it. Sakura darted over and quickly bound both cards once more.

"Are you alright, Madison?" Sakura asked as she hurried over to her friend.

"I'm fine," Madison reassured her as she pulled herself to her feet. "One Clow Card down."

"And about a zillion more to go," Sakura muttered.

Just then Jay came hurrying down the path with his noisy cricket drawn. "You two!" he cried when he saw the girls. They weren't going to escape from him this time.

"Run!" Kero shouted as he swooped in on Jay, getting in his face, scratching in biting, blinding him with the fluttering of his wings.

Sakura darted off dragging Madison behind her only to run into Kay coming from the opposite direction. Kay reached out to grab them but Sakura was running again pulling Madison with her even as she was releasing the Fly card. A moment later, the girls were safely airborne.


	7. Chapter 7

"I can't believe that thing got away again!" Jay cried as he saw Kay coming up the path towards him. "Hey, Kay, did you see a teddy bear flying down that way?"

"No. Saw two girls with a stick with wings though. What happened?" Kay asked as he noticed the scratches on his partner's face. "Another stuffed animal attack?"

"That thing is a menace!" Jay cried. At least this time people wouldn't think he was crazy. Kay had seen how the girls escaped. He had been right about that so surely everyone would believe that he was right about the stuffed animal too. "So where are X and Elle?"

The two agents quickly surveyed the scene looking for their colleagues. A moment later, Jay saw a flash of black and hurried over. "Elle?" he said as he knelt down beside her, idly wondering why she was laying on top of her partner. He reached out and carefully moved her off of X and onto her back so he could see if she was hurt. As soon as he rolled her over, he jumped back with a scream.

"What's.... Oh," Kay said as he came over and saw what had disturbed his partner. He raised an eyebrow as he looked down at Elle wondering how in the world that happened.

Suddenly, Elle opened her eyes. "Jay, Kay, what..." Just then she looked down and saw her state of dress or rather undress. Her skirt was ripped in several places almost to the waist. She didn't know how it was still staying on. She had lost almost all of the buttons off of her blouse and jacket, leaving the garments all pulled up and gaping in certain critical areas. Elle looked down again and this time noticed that a rather important undergarment had somehow came unhooked too. She jumped up and darted behind a tree screaming.

"What's wrong with her?" X grumbled as he woke up as well and quickly pulled himself to his feet. "If anyone has anything to complain about, it's me! She fell on me! Do you have any idea how heavy she is?!!"

"Shut up, X!!" Elle shrieked. "Someone give me a coat or something!"

"Are you upset because you're almost naked?" X asked with a laugh. "Believe me, I'm upset about it too! It was like looking at a train wreck! Did you know that she had the oddest mark on her...."

"X, if you do not shut up this minute, I swear that I will kill you!! No jury in the universe would convict me! Someone please give me a jacket and get me home now!!"


	8. Chapter 8

"What happened to you?" Zed asked as Elle came storming into headquarters with one jacket put on backwards to fully cover her chest and another wrapped around her waist as a makeshift skirt. Jay, Kay and X were following behind her with X trying but not really very hard to hold back his chuckles.

"If anyone needs me, I'll be in my room changing! X, if I were you, I would start making out your will! I have scalpels and I know how to use them!" Elle cried before stalking off.

"What happened to her?" Zed asked Kay.

"There was a tiny incident at the zoo," Jay said.

"Something grabbed her and tossed her up in the air. Her uniform came out the worse for wear." Kay said.

"I'm surprised I didn't go blind," X muttered. "Humans are hideous enough with their clothes on but without them.... Did you know she has the oddest mark on...."

"Wouldn't say another word if I were you," Kay said.

"Did you know Elle used to cut up bodies for a living?" Jay added. "I'm sure she isn't that out of practice."

"Do you expect me to be afraid of one tiny little human? If anyone needs me, I'll be in my room washing off the human germs!" X said as he stalked off.

"I don't even want to know what happened at the zoo. Just tell me that our penguin juggler has been taken care of." Zed said as he shook his head. At least he wouldn't have to worry about the expense of a funeral for X. Elle probably wouldn't leave enough of him to bury.

"The penguin juggler's been taken care of, we assume," Kay said, "But we ran into those girls that Jay saw earlier."

"And their stuffed animal pal. Don't forget that!" Jay added. "That thing is menace!"

"I don't suppose they were properly neuralized this time, were they?"

"Fraid not," Jay said as he suddenly remembered something. "Kay, I thought one of those girls, the dark haired one, had a video camera. Did you see a video camera?"

"A video camera?! Jay, Kay, I want you to get out there right now and find these girls! They can't be allowed to continue roaming around the city with knowledge of aliens!" Zed said as he started back to his office. A video camera. Just their luck. Who knows what the girls might have taped?


	9. Chapter 9

"So, has the news mentioned any Clow Cards?" Sakura asked as she came out of the bathroom the next morning to find Madison and Kero sitting on one of the beds watching tv.

"Nothing yet," Madison said just as the reporter was handed a bulletin and a moment later, she announced a disturbance at the lake in Central Park. Supposedly, a nearby sewer pipe had broke, creating whirlpools all over the lake.

"Oh, no! Watery!" Sakura cried when she saw the report. They had been lucky the last time. Watery had been at the aquarium where it wasn't able to really pose a danger to anyone but the trainers and animals. There were people who took boats out in that lake, though, not to mention all of the other people who might be close enough to that water to be threatened. "Come on!"

"How will you capture it this time, Sakura?" Madison asked as she followed her friend out of the room after snatching her video camera. The last time they had been able to lure it into the aquarium freezer but that wasn't going to work now.

"I don't know. I'll think of something when I get to the park. Right now all I care about is getting Watery away from there before someone really gets hurt!" Sakura pulled Madison into an alleyway behind the hotel and quickly summoned her wand and the power of the Fly Card. They had to get to the park fast.

*******

"X, I swear if you do not stop chuckling, I am going to give you an autopsy....while you're still alive!!" Elle yelled at her partner as she slowly moved around the edge of the lake looking for signs of what could be causing the mysterious whirlpools. 'Wonder how upset Zed would be if I threw X into one of those?' she thought. He had been laughing non-stop ever since the incident at the zoo the day before and just that morning, she had caught him telling a couple of other agents about that mark on her.... She was definitely going to have to kill him.

Elle frowned as she felt water lapping at her shoes, soaking them. She started to step back, but one of her feet was stuck. She jerked her leg, thinking that it was mud holding her foot in place, but it still wouldn't budge and suddenly Elle felt something pulling her off balance, jerking her feet out from underneath her and sending her crashing into the lake.

"Help!" she shouted not really expecting X to do anything. She jerked at her foot again, reaching down with her hands to try to pull free. Whatever had her wasn't budging though and it was dragging her deeper into the lake.

Suddenly, she heard splashing nearby and X appeared at her side. "What happened to you?" he grumbled as he grabbed her arm. "Why don't you just stand up?"

"Something's got my foot!" Elle cried as she pulled harder on her leg to try to free herself. She was being pulled into deeper water now. It was lapping at her chin. Just then, the thing that had her pulled hard and jerked her completely under and out of X's grasp. She frantically kicked out with her free foot trying to make contact with whatever was holding her but there was nothing there that she could touch. Her chest was starting to burn and she could feel spots passing in front of her eyes as she struggled.

X finally managed to find Elle under the water and grabbed her. He jerked hard on her, trying to pull her to the surface but she just wouldn't move He slid deeper into the water, hoping to find whatever had her foot and free her. He had just caught sight of the miniature whirlpool that was imprisoning her, when he was forced to surface for air. When he when back under a second later, Elle was floating totally limp in the water, her eyes deep black pools staring up at him.


	10. Chapter 10

"Oh, no!" Sakura cried when she spotted the frantic splashing coming from the lake. The Watery Card had trapped someone! She motioned for Madison to get off of the wand and then shouted, "Watery, show yourself! I'm the one you want!"

A second later, the Watery Card appeared and lunged for Sakura, who took off on the wand. She didn't know how she was going to capture the card and at the moment she didn't care. All she was concerned about was getting it away from there before someone else got hurt.

*****

X was still struggling with Elle, trying to jerk her foot free of the whirlpool. The water was seriously bothering him, working its way under the edges of his human disguise, and bluring his vision. He quickly yanked it off. Him being out of uniform was the least of Zed's problems right now. He probably wouldn't even notice. X yanked once more on Elle and suddenly she was free, the whirlpool holding her foot disipating.

"What's that?" Madison whispered as she saw X surface and pull Elle out of the lake. She turned to the little creature beside her. "Kero, is that a Clow Card?"

"No Clow Card I've ever seen," Kero muttered as he stared at X. "No time to worry about it now though. We have to help Sakura!"

X looked up just in time to see a human girl with a video camera and what looked like some sort of flying toy hurry off down one of the paths. There was nothing that he could do about them now, though. He looked down at Elle again. Something was definately wrong. Her eyes were normally little beedy things but now they were open wide and totally black. He shook her hoping to wake her up but she remained still and silent. Definately not good! Now what was he supposed to do? He had had some first aid training on his own planet but it only covered the superior species, nothing was said about humans. He wasn't even one hundred percent sure where their hearts were located!

He gathered Elle into his arms, rocking her. He hadn't liked her, couldn't stand being her partner, but he didn't want this to happen to her. He leaned down and put one big ear against her chest. It was probably futile, he wasn't even sure if it was the right place, but he had to do something. At first he couldn't hear anything but a moment later, he finally heard a faint thump, giving him a bit of hope that maybe she was still alive. Now what was he supposed to do though?

******

Madison and Kero ducked behind a tree when they spotted Jay and Kay hurrying up the path, both having their icers drawn. Just then Madison spotted the Watery Card, which had apparently lost Sakura, behind them getting ready to swoop down.

"Look out!" she shrieked, giving them just enough warning to dodge out of the way. Kay fired his icer and grazed the card just as Sakura appeared. Watery promptly turned, forgetting the men in black and headed after her.

"Did you see that?" Kero said as he looked at the icer. "Come on!"

The little guardian beast swooped down, snatching the icer before Kay had a chance to react and flew off down the path after Sakura and Watery.

We'll bring that back later!" Madison called as she hurried after Kero.


	11. Chapter 11

X stared down at his partner as he frantically tried to figure out what in the world he should do. He was afraid that anything that he tried would end up hurting her even worse, considering how fragile humans were and Elle's small size. He carefully eased her back onto the ground, carefully closing her eyes. He didn't want to have to look at them when they were like that, all huge and dark. He had never liked her eyes before with their little beady look but this was even worse.

He leaned over her and tentively pressed his lips against hers. He thought that might be the right thing to try with humans. He hesitantly blew into her mouth just a bit, terrified to use too much force for fear of hurting her. Her chest trembled a bit as he blew, but it wasn't enough. Not that he paid attention, but it seemed that human chests moved a bit more than that when they were breathing. He blew again, harder than before, and jumped back when he suddenly heard a loud pop. He stared down at her in horror, just knowing that he had killed her. Sure, she was annoying and hideous looking but he didn't want that.

Suddenly, Elle's body convulsed and she started to cough and throw up water. X reached down again and picked her up, holding her against him until the coughing stopped and he felt her chest trembling in a regular pattern. He quickly stood and hurried down the path with her in his arms. Agents Jay and Kay had to be around somewhere. They would know what to do for her.

*******

"Kero, be careful!" Madison called as the guardian beast swooped down on the Watery Card firing the icer wildly. It was even bigger than he was, making it impossible to aim it.

"Windy, bind Water!" Sakura called as she release the Windy Card. She didn't know what in the world Kero had or where he had got it but it was distracting Watery. As Windy wrapped itself around the other card, Sakura quickly used the wand to seal it again.

"Thanks, Kero," she said as he came flying over to her. "What's that thing you have?"

"No, idea, but can I keep it?" Kero asked. This was such a cool toy! If only he was a bit larger and could use it properly. Well, maybe when he got back to his true form.

"Hey, you!" Jay called as he ran up the path. "Stop right there!"

"Not them again," Sakura muttered as she summoned Fly and climbed onto her wand with Madison.

The girls had just gotten air born when Kay suddenly appeared in front of them, flying with the rockets in his shoes. "Going somewhere, girls?" he asked. "I'm going to have to ask you to come with..."

Kay's sentence was cut off as Kero rammed into him, knocking him out of the girls' path for a minute. Kay started to go after them again but just then X appeared on the path carrying Elle in his arms. Kay looked at the fleeing girls for a moment before deciding they could wait and heading back down. He just wondered why the dark haired girl had seemed so familiar to him.


	12. Chapter 12

"What happened to her?" Kay asked as he landed and hurried over to X and Elle along with Jay.

"We were checking out the disturbance in the lake and something grabbed her and pulled her in," X told them as he stared down at his partner. She looked incredibly bad, even for a human. He quickly shoved her into Kay's arms. "Here! Help her!"

"Is she okay?" Jay asked as Kay lowered Elle to the ground and knelt by her side, carefully checking her.

"I...I didn't hurt her, did I?" X asked anxiously. 

"Hurt her? Exactly what did you do?" Jay demanded when he heard that.

"Well, it wasn't my fault! I'm not the one who made her so small, not to mention fragile," he muttered under his breath. "I was trying to help her! Is she alright? There was this popping sound and...."

'Not breathing really well but she is breathing," Kay said as he finished checking her. "Slick, better call and have Zed get a medical team out here."

*******

"What happened?" Zed demanded as he came over to Jay and Kay. To their surprise, he had arrived with the medical team. They were now working on Elle with X hovering anxiously in the background. It seemed that his partner's near-drowning had managed to scare the alien agent to death.

"We aren't exactly sure but from what we saw something that looked like a mermaid...."

"A nasty mermaid!" Jay added.

"Something that looked like a mermaid was apparently in the lake and was responsible for the whirlpools, including the one that injured Elle. When we spotted her, she was chasing one of those girls. Then the stuffed animal that Jay reported seeing took my icer and went after it with the other girl. By the time we got here, the creature was gone and the girls were making their escape. I went after them but then X brought Elle over and I had to stop."

"Just great," Zed muttered. Now these kids were running loose with an icer, as if the video camera wasn't bad enough, especially considering the fact that they had X on tape without his mask. He could understand why Kay hadn't gone after them though. The safety of agents came first. "I want you to talk to the twins and see about running that stuffed animal and the mermaid through our databases. Maybe we'll get lucky and find something."

*****

X hesitantly pushed the door to the drug store open and entered. It had been two hours since the incident in the park and they had finally got the news that Elle would be just fine. Apparently when she had drowned, something had closed in her throat, keeping most of the water and unfortunately the air as well out of her lungs. The popping was whatever had shut coming open when he had breathed into her hard enough. Thank goodness it had turned out to be something good instead of him hurting her!

He hurried over to the greeting card aisle and glanced at the rows of cards. He didn't know why in the world he was here. He wasn't even sure what sort of card he was supposed to be looking for. Finally he spotted one that looked promising, with a nice rainbow on the front. He picked it up and hurried over to the cash register to pay for it, stopping along the way to pick up a bundle of red roses. Maybe they would make her feel a bit better.


	13. Chapter 13

"Two cards down. I think we're doing pretty well," Madison said as the girls and Kero came into the hotel room.

"I just hope that lady that Watery grabbed is okay," Sakura murmured. Madison had told her about what she saw at the lake and ever since, she couldn't stop thinking about it. She would never ever forgive herself if the Clow Cards really hurt someone or worse. "Maybe I should call around to the hospitals and see if I can find out anything."

"Sakura, I'm sure there's nothing to worry about," Madison said as she tried to reassure her friend. "You saw the kind of things that her friends had, flying shoes and Kero's new toy. I'm sure that they fixed her right up."

"I hope so," Sakura murmured. Just then she saw the card with the address Madison had been told to go to for information on her father laying on the bedside table. "Madison, why don't we try finding out about your dad again?"

"I don't know if that's such a good idea, Sakura," Madison said. "Shouldn't we be out looking for the Clow Cards?"

"Where could we look in a city this size? We could search forever and no even cover half of it. The best thing for us to do is wait for the cards to show themselves," Sakura said. "We might as well go and see what we can find out about your dad while we can."

"I'm not so sure that I should have even thought of looking anyway," Madison whispered as she struggled to hold back tears.

"What do you mean?" Sakura asked.

"What if I don't like what I find?" Madison sobbed. "What if my father was some terrible person? There has to be a reason why my mother never told me anything about him!" In a softer, almost inaudible voice, she whispered, "What if he didn't want me?"

"Madison, I'm sure your dad wanted you very much," Sakura reassured her as she hugged her friend to try to comfort her. "Maybe it just hurts your mom to talk about him or maybe she doesn't think it's important since he wasn't a part of your life. I just can't believe that he was some awful person though. How could an awful person have such a wonderful daughter as you?"

"I miss him so much," Madison murmured. "What if finding out about him makes it hurt even worse?"

"Nothing is going to hurt worse than not knowing. Come on. We'll do this together," Sakura said as she helped Madison to her feet and they started for the door with Kero flying behind them clutching his new toy.


	14. Chapter 14

X hurried down the hall and into the medical lab carrying the card and flowers. He didn't know why in the world every agent that he passed kept looking at him and snickering. He would never understand humans if he lived to be a hundred. He was just bringing a gift to cheer his partner up. Elle had almost drowned after all.

He pushed the door open and crept in. After checking her out, they had moved her to a private room to rest. She was still fast asleep. 'Good,' X thought as he hurried over to her bedside and arranged the flowers and the card on the bedside table. At least he wouldn't have to try to explain what he was doing to her. He looked down critically at Elle. At least she looked almost back to normal now, with her eyes nice and beady looking again. He looked around to make sure that no one was watching before reaching down and pulling up the blanket she was covered with, tucking it securely in around her shoulders before leaving.

A little bit later, Elle awoke with a low moan. "What happened?" she muttered as she opened her eyes and looked around in confusion for a second before realizing where she was. She shook her head to try to clear it. The last thing she remembered was something pulling her under the water in the park. She thought she had saw X for a moment before she blacked out but she couldn't be sure. Just then she spotted the roses on the bedside table.

"Where did these come from?" she wondered out loud before reaching out and picking up the card. She started to blush as she read the poem on the front and then a confused expression filled her face when she saw the signature, X. "What's that alien up to?" Elle murmured just as another card fell out of the greeting card. She curiously picked it up and stared at it. It looked kind of like a tarot card, she thought, as she remembered a case she had worked before joining the MiB in which the victim had been found with a deck of tarot cards stuffed in his mouth, suffocating him. She didn't recall seeing or hearing a card with this name though. It was rectangular, about five or six inches long, a little bigger than the tarot cards she had seen before. There was a human figure, she couldn't tell if it was male or female, dressed in clothing that looked like it was edged in a lightning bolt pattern. Definately not your typical tarot card.

"The Shot," she read as suddenly the card started to glow and a second later a beam of light smacked into the bed, narrowly missing her. "What's going on?" she cried as she rolled off of the bed onto the floor as more beams slammed into the bed, getting closer to her with each hit. She staggered for the door, going as fast as she could with whatever was after her right behind. "X, what have you gotten me into?" she cried as she ran.


	15. Chapter 15

Elle darted down the corridors, a trail of blood from the IV she had accidentally dislodged dripping behind her. She didn't have time to stop to control the bleeding though. Every blast from whatever that thing was was getting closer. She didn't know how much longer she could avoid it. What in the world had X given her and where were all of the other agents?!

Suddenly, Elle stumbled and crashed to the floor. She tried to pull herself to her feet again, but the thing that was chasing her was zooming in. She would never be able to get out of the way in time. She curled herself into a tight ball, covering her head with her arms. Maybe she could minimize the damage she would suffer anyway.

Elle braced herself for the impact, but it never came. After a minute had passed with nothing hitting her, she opened uncurled herself and looked up to find the figure from the card was laying on the floor about a foot away from her with some sort of furry pink animal sitting on top of it.

"Well, did you stop this thing?" she asked as she finally pulled herself to her feet and walked over, pressing her fingers against the bleeding on her arm to try to slow it. The pink animal eagerly bounced all around Elle, rubbing itself up against her legs.

"Aren't you cute?" she murmured as she reached down and petted it. She started off down the hall with the animal following. "Come on. You can come and stay with me. So, do you like cats?"

*******

Sakura, Madison and Kero were almost to the building Madison had been told about when Sakura suddenly stopped and looked around as if searching for something. "Kero, do you feel something?" she asked.

"Definately a Clow Card," Kero muttered. He slowly turned and looked at the building. "And it's coming from in there!"

The girls quickly hurried to the door and peered into the building. The only thing they could see was one guard and an elevator. The Clow Card must be on another floor somewhere. Sakura summoned the Sleep Card, releasing it as she opened the door so they could get past the guard. The girls and Kero hurried past him and ducked into the elevator. "How do you make this thing work?" Sakura wondered out loud as she and Kero examined the inside of the elevator. There were no buttons to push to make it go up or down.

"Sakura, look!" Madison said. She had been looking at the back of the elevator and had managed to hit something, she didn't know what, during her exploration. Sakura and Kero turned just as the back of the elevator slid open revealing a large area behind it.

"Should we go in?" Madison asked.

"We have to. The Clow Card is in there," Sakura said as she started in with Kero and Madison following behind her.


	16. Chapter 16

Jay shook his head and tried to pull himself to his feet. He was seeing three of everything. He ducked as another agent came flying in his direction and crashed into the wall. Jay slipped and slid to the floor again, staring in shock at the situation. Agents were scattered all over the floor, thrown there by an odd woman who had suddenly appeared and silently challenged them to fight her. Jay didn't think that she was an alien, although with that bluish tint she had she looked odd enough to be one. What Jay was concerned about was the fact that this woman was now threatening his partner. Normally, Jay wouldn't be worried. Kay could definitely handle himself in a fight. This woman had just wiped the floor with half of the MiB though and she hadn't even broke a sweat!

Jay pulled himself up again, leaning against the twins' monitor board for support. After the woman had taken down the first agent, the two aliens had wisely dove for cover. He fumbled in his pockets looking for the Noisy Cricket. He had to do something fast. If only his vision weren't so messed up.

Kay circled the woman, blocking every punch and hit that she threw at him. She was fast. He had to give her that. He hit out at her, catching the side of her face with the blow and sending her staggering back for a second. She staggered back and jumped, going higher than Kay believed was possible for a human. She had obviously planned to land behind him and catch him off guard but Kay was prepared for her. He spun as she landed, grabbing her leg and jerking her feet out from under her. She quickly sprang back up sending a blow towards his head followed by a series of lightning fast punches. This could get interesting.

Just then Kero came flying in and caught sight of the woman. "Sakura!" he called as he flew back the way he had came. "It's the Fight Card!"

"Oh, no!" Sakura cried as soon as she heard Kero. She tore off down the hall as fast as she could, with Madison trying to keep up.

The two girls came rushing in just in time to see the Fight Card go crashing to the floor from a blow from Kay. "Excuse me," Sakura said as she darted over with her sealing wand. "I think that I better take care of this."

Sakura raised the wand and called out, "Fight Card! Return to your power confined! Fight Card!" The MiB agents watched in shock as the woman that had just done so much damage was sucked into a card that Sakura then picked up and signed.

"Girls, would you like to explain who you are, how you got in here and what in the world that thing that just took out half of my agents was?" Zed demanded as he came storming over.


	17. Chapter 17

Sakura, Madison and Kero followed Zed into his office with Kay and Jay right behind them.

"First of all, who are you?" Zed demanded.

"I'm Sakura Avalon and this is my friend Madison Taylor." Sakura said. She wondered what was going to happen to them now. Surely these people would let them go after she explained. "And that's Kero, the guardian beast of the Clow."

"Doesn't look like much of a beast to me," Jay muttered under his breath.

"I heard that!" Kero cried as he turned around and flew at Jay.

"Kero, behave!" Sakura called as she and Madison grabbed Kero before he could cause anymore trouble. "I'm sorry. Kero doesn't like it when people make jokes about him. He's supposed to be a lot bigger than this."

"What's this Clow that you mentioned?" Kay asked. He sensed that they really needed to get the conversation away from the sensitive stuffed animal.

"The Clow Cards. That's what attacked you and attacked your friends earlier in the park and at the zoo. Here," Sakura said as she pulled the Clow Book out of her backpack and opened it, holding out the cards for them to see. "The Clow Cards were created a long time ago by a man named Clow Reed. Then he sealed them in this book but I accidentally opened it and let them out. Ever since then, I've been trying to recapture them. I had a lot more than I do now, but a few days ago they got loose again when some sort of blast hit my backpack."

"How do these cards work?" Zed asked.

"I don't really know. They're magic. I just know how to seal them and how to use them once they've been captured. Uh, is it okay if we go now? I'm really sorry for any trouble the cards have caused you."

"Why don't you show us what these cards do, first?" Zed said, stalling for time to decide what to do about the girls.

"Well, alright." Sakura said as she thought for a minute to try to figure out which card would be safe to use. She supposed Shadow or Windy would be the safest. They had already seen how Fly worked. "I could show you the Shadow Card. Would that be okay?"

"Fine. Just let me call a few people to come and observe this," Zed said as he reached for his communicator. He wanted Zeeltor up here to take readings and find out exactly what they were dealing with.


	18. Chapter 18

Sakura stared in surprise for a moment when Dr. Zeeltor came bustling in and started sitting up instruments. Sakura shook her head after looking at him for a little bit. She supposed he wasn't as odd looking as Kero the flying teddy bear or some of the Clow Cards.

"Now what is it you want me to observe?" Zeeltor asked as he finished setting up his instruments.

"I'm not really sure," Zed said. "Young lady, what does this thing you're about to show us do?"

"The Shadow card captures shadows and then uses them to attack. It can grab things and."

"It can bind things like it did with the Thunder Card." Madison added.

"Binding? I have an idea for what you can do for a demonstration," Jay said as he got a mischievous gleam in his eyes. He hurried over to Sakura and whispered something in her ear.

"Well, okay," Sakura said as she raised her wand and called out, "Shadow Card, release and dispel!" As the Shadow Card appeared, she called again, "Shadow Card, bind the doctor!"

A moment later, black shadows wrapped around Dr. Zeeltor binding him as effectively as his sticky pad paper had trapped Jay a few months before. Zeeltor gasped in surprise as the card grabbed him and then begin to laugh and wiggle in its grasp. "Tickles," he gasped out between laughs.

As soon as he saw the alien was trapped, Jay started to laugh. He wondered if he would have enough time to run back to his room for his camera. This moment should definitely be preserved for posterity. He laughed even harder as the card tickled the alien. That was definitely something he would have to remember the next time Zeeltor decided to do surgery on him without permission. Perhaps a little itching powder would teach him a lesson.

"Fascinating!" Zeeltor exclaimed as Sakura called the card back and he was released. He quickly hurried over to his instruments and checked the readings. "If you'll excuse me, I'll just run these down to the lab for study!"

"Oh, that was great!" Jay chuckled as Zeeltor left. "So, do you happen to have any cards that can change colors?"

Just then the door came open and X came in carrying the Shot Card in its human form. "I found this down in the hall by the medical lab," he said as he dropped the figure on the floor. Then he pulled out his human mask and dropped it on Zed's desk. "I think I need a replacement for this thing. It shrunk or something."

"The Shot Card!" Sakura exclaimed as she hurried over and quickly sealed it before it could wake up. "Where did you find this?" she asked. If the Shot Card was in it's physical form then someone must have activated it. She just hoped that whoever did got away.

"Down by the medical lab. Why?" X asked. He couldn't have seen what he just thought that he saw.

"That was the Shot Card. When it's activated, it chases the first person that it sees and attacks them with powerful rays."

X suddenly recalled the blood that he had saw in the hallway and hurried for the door calling as he went, "I think I better go and check on something!"


	19. Chapter 19

"Agent Elle? Are you in here?" X called as he knocked on the door of her room. He had followed the trail of blood from the site where he found the "card" to her door. At least the trail had gotten lighter, the closer he got to her room, he had noticed. Hopefully that was a good sign. When she didn't answer the door right away, he pushed on it, opening it and stepping inside.

"What are you doing here?" Elle demanded as she came out of her bedroom dressed in a clean black skirt, white shirt and jacket.

"Where have you been?" X asked. He was relieved that she seemed to be her usual annoying self with no visible signs of injury. He wasn't going to let her know about that, though.

"Where else was I going to go after your greeting card attacked me?! Back to the infirmary for the flowers to finish me off?" Elle demanded. "Could I ask why in the world you decided to give me a lethal get well card? That kind of goes against the general idea behind get well cards, you know."

"How was I to know that something like that would happen? Wait a minute. What did happen?" X asked her.

"What happened? What happened is that I opened the greeting card you left and this weird card, it looked like a tarot card only it had the oddest name, fell out. I had just read the name on it, The Shot, when the thing started to glow and the next thing I knew, I was being chased through the halls by something that was firing these blasts at me! I should have been suspicious when I saw the flowers!"

"Well, you don't have to worry about that thing that attacked you anymore. The girls who have been giving Agent Jay such a hard time showed up and one of them dealt with the thing somehow, don't ask me how," X said. "Wait a minute. Why should you have been suspicious when you saw the flowers?"

"Because the were red roses," When Elle noticed the confused expression on X's face she asked, "Don't you know what giving someone red roses means?"

"No. Should I?"

"I thought you were trained in Earth customs," Elle muttered. "Although I can understand if they skipped telling you about this one. Probably figured you wouldn't ever need to know it with that personality of yours. Red roses are a symbol of love here."

"What?!!" X cried when he heard that. Now he understood why everyone had been snickering at him. Why didn't the humans label these things? He started to back towards the door quickly. He had to get away from there right away. "When you're through dressing, you should come down to Zed's office. That teddy bear that Agent Jay saw is down there," he informed her as he darted out. He really needed to get a book on Earth customs fast before he made anymore mistakes like that!


	20. Chapter 20

"So, how many more of these things are loose in the city?" Zed asked as he led Sakura, Madison and Kero through the halls of MiB with Jay and Kay following. He had already decided that he couldn't take a chance on neuralyzing the girls and the teddy bear. Not with those things running around. They would need them with their memories intact to handle the situation before someone got hurt. There had already been one too many close calls.

"Around twenty or so," Sakura murmured sadly. "Of course, some of them aren't really dangerous, just a bit annoying."

Twenty of those things. In their encounters with those cards so far, they had only been able to handle one and most of the MiB had been taken out before they did it. The MiB was created to handle aliens, not magic. Come to think of it, Zed wasn't even sure that he believed in magic, or at least he hadn't believed in it until today. He hoped that Zeeltor had been able to pick something up during the demonstration of the Shadow card. If the cards gave off some sort of energy signature, it might make them easier to find.

Just then X came down the hall and joined the procession, followed a few minutes later by Elle. The two were being careful not to look at each other for some strange reason. "Doesn't she look just like my bodyguards?" Madison said to Sakura when she caught sight of Elle.

"Bodyguards?" Zed asked.

"My mom is the president of a big toy company back home. I have four bodyguards that dress just like her," Madison explained with a smile before catching sight of another alien and involving herself in filming again. This was going to be so much fun to watch when she got back home and could play with the tape.

Kay frowned as Madison talked about her family. Something about the description of her mother sounded very familiar, brought back an incident from years ago. Something that he thought that he had forgotten. He needed to check the MiB mainframe as soon as possible. If his suspicions were correct....

Kero was fluttering along behind Sakura when a sweet odor drifted into the little creature's nose. "I smell cake," he murmured as he silently slipped away from the group and flew off, following the delicious smell as fast as he could go.

"Uh, excuse me," Madison said a few minutes later as she noticed something odd about what she was filming, "Are we lost? I know that I filmed that before." She motioned towards a wall with a sign in some odd alien language.

"What? That's impossible," Zed said. There was no way that they could be lost in their own headquarters.

"Here. Take a look," Madison said as she fiddled with the video camera a bit, rewinding the tape to the desired place before handing it to him.

"How in the world," Zed muttered as he stared into the view finder, looking at the tape as it played back. They had passed that sign before but how?

"Oh, no," Sakura murmured as she realized what had happened. "The Maze Card!"


	21. Chapter 21

"Cake!" Kero cried as he flew into the kitchen and spotted a large coffee cake setting on the counter. He swooped down on it, snatching a paper plate and surveying the counter to try to find a knife to cut a slice off.

The worms looked up when Kero came in and stared curiously at the stuffed animal as he started tugging drawers open looking for a knife. They even forgot their coffee for a moment.

"Where's the silverware?" Kero asked the worms. The four creatures were a little odd looking, he had to admit but he could tell they weren't Clow Cards so he wasn't especially concerned about them. Just then he spotted a knife in one of the drawers and snatched it, staggering back over to the cake with it and starting to cut a large slice off. "So, anymore sweet stuff around here?"

"Coffee?" one of the worms asked as he held out the pot. "It has sugar."

"Don't mind if I do," Kero said with a contented sigh as the worm placed a mug that was almost as big as him on the counter.

A little while later, Kero had just finished relating another story of his adventures as the guardian beast of the Clow when his ears started to tingle. "I sense a Clow Card," he murmured as he flew out of the kitchen, all thought of sweets forgotten. The worms followed along behind him lagging a thermos of coffee, eager to see what was going on.

"Oh, no!" Kero cried when he tracked the vibrations to their source, a wall that from the way people were staring at it, hadn't been there a little while ago. It was very close to where he had last seen Sakura and the others too, but which card could it be? After a moment's consideration, his choices were narrowed down to two cards, The Loop or The Maze. Either way, Sakura was going to need his help.

"Do you know where I can get some kind of weapon?" he asked as he turned to the worms.

"Weapons of mass destruction are next to the coffee storeroom," one of the worms informed him.

"Great! Now show me where it is! Don't worry, Sakura! Help is on the way!" he called as he flew off after the worms.

A few minutes later, the MiB agent manning the checkpoint leading to supplies was shocked to see the worms hurrying past with what looked like a flying teddy bear following him. He shook his head, not believing what he had just seen. He really needed to get his eyes examined. Everyone knew that teddy bears didn't fly.

"Oh, this is excellent," Kero said as he flew around the weapons vault eagerly inspecting all of the shiny new toys. Unfortunately most of them were much too big for him to work but after a few minutes, he finally found a possibility, a small weapon only a couple of inches long. Exactly his size! He snapped it up and quickly inspected it. It didn't look very powerful but he had learned by now not to take things at face value. He flew out of the weapons vault with his prize motioning for the worms to stop grabbing coffee and to follow him. He just hoped that Sakura was alright.


	22. Chapter 22

"Exactly what is this Maze Card?" Zed demanded of Sakura.

"It's pretty much what it sounds like," Sakura murmured as she anxiously looked around. She had needed Ms. Mackenzie to escape the card before. What was she going to do now? "It forms a maze that traps people inside. We need to try to find the exit. I can't capture it until we get out." Just then she noticed that someone was missing. "Where's Kero?"

"If you mean the flying teddy bear, it took off a little while ago. Looked like it was heading towards the kitchen," X said as he looked anxiously around the hall. Was it just him or did it seem like the walls were getting closer together?

"He picks the worst times to get hungry," Sakura muttered. If Kero had been there, maybe he would have known a way to escape the card. She already knew that the Sword Card and the Fly Card were basically useless. She looked up to find everyone's eyes on her. They were all waiting for her to tell them what to do. Little did they know that she had no idea how to handle the situation.

"Okay," she said after a minute. "We need to spread out and check the walls and see if we can find anything different about them anywhere. Just stay close together. The Maze Card always does the unexpected."

The group spread out, only a arm's reach away from each other, feeling the walls for any differences that might signal something, possibly a hidden opening or a weakness, Sakura by Zed, Jay and Kay next to Madison and Elle and X at the rear of the group.

"These walls really do seem to be getting closer together," X murmured to Elle as he ran his hands along the walls.

"X, walls don't..." Elle started to say just as the wall suddenly shuddered and a section of it shot out, knocking her off of her feet.

"Look out! The card's shifting!" Sakura cried as she dodged the rapidly moving walls with Zed following the girl.

The ground beneath Madison's feet trembled and suddenly the floor shot up, sending her into the air. Before she could get out of their reach, Kay jumped up, catching the edge of the section that she was on and pulled himself up. He grabbed Madison and dropped back to the ground again, using his body to keep her safe as they landed.

A moment later, things stopped shifting as the Maze finished reconfiguring itself into its three dimensional form. "Is everyone okay?" Sakura asked anxiously.

"Help! Get me down from here!" Elle cried causing everyone to look up. She was standing on a section of the ceiling high above their head, suspended there in defiance of the laws of gravity. She grabbed at her skirt, frantically trying to keep it from flipping over her head again.

"There's that mark again," X noted with a chuckle. "Have you ever thought about having that surgically removed?"

"Pipe down and get me down from here! I'm going to fall and break my neck!" Elle cried as she glared at her partner.

"Don't worry. You won't fall. We'll figure a way to get you down from there in just a minute." Sakura reassured her. She didn't know how they would do that though. Ms. Mackenzie had been the one to rescue Meilin from a similar situation. Just then she noticed something. "Where's Madison?"

"Come to think about it, where's Kay?" Jay said as he looked around and saw that his partner wasn't with them anymore. When the card had shifted, the two had vanished.


	23. Chapter 23

"Are you alright?" Kay asked Madison as he helped her to her feet and then glanced around as she nodded. No sign of the others. He reached into his jacket and pulled out a weapon, aiming at the wall he thought should lead to the outside and firing. The blast blew a hole in the wall but before Kay and Madison could step through, it resealed.

"I was afraid that would happen," Madison murmured, remembering the last time she had been in the Maze Card. She reached out and took Kay's hand, leading him over one of the walls and beginning to carefully feel her way along it with her free hand. "Come on. Maybe we can find our way out like this, or at least find our way back to the others!"

******

"So, what do we do now? We're missing two people and we have a third breaking the laws of physics on the ceiling," Zed muttered as he looked down at Sakura. "Exactly how dangerous is this thing?"

"It's not dangerous so much as annoying," Sakura told them as she thought of what to do. At least Madison wasn't alone. Surely that nice Kay person would protect her until they could find them again. She wasn't so sure about the poor woman on the ceiling though. Meilin hadn't fallen but she hadn't been trapped like that for long. Who knows what could happen if they left her up there? And what if the maze reconfigured itself again? Then she might be in serious danger.

"I think we better try and get your friend down from there first. Come on," Sakura said as she started along the maze looking for a way up.

"Wait!" Elle cried. "Don't leave me!"

"I'll stay here and keep an eye on her. She causes enough trouble right side up. Who knows what she could do upside down," X said as Elle glared at him. Apparently X's offer satisfied Zed though, and he quickly followed Sakura with Jay right behind him.


	24. Chapter 24

"Aww, come on!" Kero called to the worms as they darted into Zed's office. He followed them in and found them around the coffee machine, busily filling their mugs. "Can't you do that later?" Just then his nose caught a whiff of the enticing aroma. He quickly flew over and snatched an empty mug. "Well, maybe one cup won't hurt! I'm sure that Sakura's handling things just fine on her own."

*******

"Um, X, could I ask a favor?" Elle said. It had been ten minutes now and there was still no sign of help. How much longer could she stay up here on the ceiling before she finally fell and broke her neck? Her arms were already tired from holding her skirt up.

"What do you want?" X asked as he looked up at her. "That mark is showing yet again, you know."

"X would you just stop looking," Elle muttered as she batted at her skirt a bit to get it in place. "Um, could you move so that you're underneath me?"

"What?" X said. "You want me to..... No way! You're too heavy! You'll crush me!"

"X, I'm going to fall!" Elle cried out despirately. She was really getting frightened hanging up there. This felt so unnatural, her being in that position with nothing holding her to the ceiling. She kept remembering the Law of Gravity. 'What goes up, must come down.' How long did she have before she fell and broke into a million pieces like Humpty Dumpty? "Maybe if you're underneath me, you can catch me before I break my neck or worse!"

"Fine, but only because Zed will blame me if you get hurt," X grumbled as he moved beneath Elle. "So, have you thought of dieting recently?"

*******

Kero and the worms hurried down the hall, the worms all clutching mugs full of coffee and a thermos that they passed back and forth. They stopped when they reached the maze and Kero pulled the noisy cricket out, holding it in front of him and furiously fluttering his wings to stay in place as he fired. A moment later, he had blasted a nice hole in the wall, a hole that was closing, true but closing slowly. Kero quickly flew in followed by the worms.

"Everyone else stay back!" he called as he started into the maze. "Sakura! Help's on the way!"


End file.
